And energy is one thing we can't afford to waste, in such a situation, because if people are reduced to life as one trick ponies it is going to be really easy to tell which ponies are nailing it and which ones are just
hanging onto the gig for the security. An expert-based system is innately hierarchical. Someone is always going to be more of an expert. For 99% of the pyramid, anyway. So if we don't want to look like slackers, we pour all of ourselves into the struggle for expertise, for authority. The respect and honor once considered due to whoever had expanded their mind to be the equal of as many situations as possible, to be fully human and, if attaining excellence beyond others, in a more general, all-purpose way, is then accorded to the one who has striven to be the master of as many of his rivals as possible, and most successfully cut off all involvement with any part of life not, directly and with crude obviousness, related to his narrow pursuits, concentrating vital energy only through these restricted channels.

In short, that we are inadequate, necessarily so, to encounter the world in independence and with, if not full awareness of the interactions between us and it, at least a broad general picture not lacking in some detail where it is most important. We learn instead to preserve the parental relationship with others throughout our lives, not because they are older and wiser, but because that is "their field," within the confines of which they can be held accountable.

If you would object that it is this very cult of specialization that has allowed the rapid development of scientific comprehension and technological advance in the recent history of our world, it may not be possible to entirely disagree, though it may be that it is the also a great part of the reason behind our, if not new found by any stretch, at least newly enhanced and sophisticated ability to carry on with our business without regard for the consequences, since they lie outside our area of expertise.

-- Something I Heard a Strange Raspy Metallic Voice Mumble In a Dream Once